As increasing quantities of data are gathered, correlated, and derived regarding almost anything on which data can be gathered, displaying this data in a form which can be easily and visually comprehended also increases in difficulty. A system for presenting this data so as to allow for the rapid absorption and processing of multiple categories of inter-related data is needed.
One example of the voluminous data being gathered, correlated, and generated can be illustrated by examining business entities. This data has expanded beyond mere financials to include regulatory, environmental, social, and financial influences. One instance of this that the business world more than ever is demanding a higher level of transparency in its statements and reports to the investing public, their executive management and board members and to the asset management industry. In part, this is due to the debacles caused by corporate scandals of major enterprises such as Enron, Worldcom, Parmalat and others in which investors and pension funds participants lost billions of dollars. Legislation has been passed in many countries to mandate guidelines for corporate governance and accounting. A notable example in the United States is the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
Many companies make use of their corporate websites to provide information to investors, analysts and the press. Based on the information provided, the performance of a company can be “benchmarked” relative to their peers. However, benchmarking in this manner is subjective, subject to human bias and is therefore cannot be applied across many companies in a precise manner. Neither are tools available for ready, objective benchmarking using prescribed or user-established criteria. Over the past eight years or so, the Swedish company Hallvarsson & Hallvarsson has measured the public performance of the Internet appearance for Europe's top 150 listed companies and the clear indication from their data is that above-average share performance is directly linked to good corporate behavior and true information sharing.
Frequently, the data presented to a user is in charts or tables that are comprised of meta-data or intermediate transformations of underlying data. The number of tables or columns in a table rapidly multiplies as more and more underlying data, meta-data, and intermediary calculations are incorporated into such charts and tables. Likewise, the ability of a user to reference multiple tables or columns in order to explore data underlying a calculation is complicated when hierarchical calculations of data and meta-data are involved.
More and more, automated systems are replacing static presentations of such charts and tables. A deficiency remains, however, in that known systems present too much information which, ironically, impedes the goal of transparency that is trying to be achieved.